Friday, January 29, 2010

Liberty & Lies


1. Interesting answer. Here is the relevant data on the housing goals from my soon (really) to be finished essay:
Starting in 1993, Fannie and Freddie have affordable housing goals—30% of Fannie and Freddie’s purchases of loans have to be loans made to borrowers whose income was below the median income in their area. These are interim goals. In 1996, the interim goal becomes firm at 40%. In 1997, the number rose to 42%. In 2001 it rose to 50%. The Bush Administration increased this number to 52% in 2005, 53% in 2006, and 55% in 2007.

2. “Obama chose to call out the only 9 guys in the room that did their homework in law school. And the rest who ended up settling for politics stood and and cheer[ed] it. That’s the embarrassment.”

3. Somehow, thanks to the constant ridicule of the mainstream media, and their shameless falsehoods and bias —we hit a tipping point where a majority of Americans stopped believing in themselves and America, which left them receptive to Obama and his brand of socialism.

4. Eric Hoffer :But once a movement gets rolling, power falls into the hands of those wh0 have neither faith in, nor respect for, the individual. And the reason they prevail is not so much that their disregard of the individual gives them a capacity for ruthlessness, but that their attitude is in full accord with the ruling passion of the masses [to lose their hated individuality in the uniformity of the mass movement].

5. Conservatism is losing ground right now because it is fundamentally an appeal to individuals and promotes the conditions in which individuals may thrive. That’s a “no sale” proposition when people would rather lose themselves in a mass movement. Conservatives need to ponder how to make people confident in their individuality again because when they are, the demand for conservatism will follow.

6. The court-packing plan met fierce opposition from FDR's own party, particularly from Sen. Burton K. Wheeler (D-Montana), a fiery progressive who declared, "Every despot has usurped the power of the legislative and judicial branches in the name of the necessity for haste to promote the general welfare of the masses—and then proceeded to reduce them to servitude." The Senate, controlled by democrats, rejected Roosevelt's court-packing plan by a vote of 70-20.

7. Suppose we killed the minimum wage, closed the EPA, killed the Wager act, and OSHA too. We could probably throw in a few others. (End the ADA, or reduce it to cover fewer disabilities). Would that be a "pro jobs" move? I'm not saying that would be wise, but couldn't one argue that part of the problem is that our regulations and mandates have made employment too expensive.

8. Barack Obama trumps that: on almost every key issue, what Obama says he will do, and what he says is true, is a clear guide to what he will not do, and what is not true. It is as if “truth” is a mere problem of lesser mortals.

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